Craig says CNCC must extend street

Requirement common for subdivision developers, community development director says

The cost of laying the groundwork for future Colorado Northwestern Community College facilities recently increased.

The city will require the college to extend Ninth Street to the edge of the 100-acre parcel where the college and the hospital plan to build. The project will cost almost $700,000, according to Twin Peaks Utilities and Infrastructure, the company contracted to carry out other infrastructure projects on the property.

The college plans to build a dormitory on the property this fall, followed by a career technical center next year. An academic building could follow in 2012, if the state grants funding for the project.

The street extension is a standard requirement for completing subdivision development, community development director Dave Costa said.

"Any and all subdivision infrastructure : has to be paid for by the developers," Costa said.

The college board owns the subdivision and is considered the developer of the property.

The city plans to eventually connect Ninth Street to roads that will serve a new subdivision west of Craig, which "is in the planning process," Costa said.

In the meantime, the college is preparing to meet the added cost.

Twin Peaks, a Lafayette-based company, will complete the extension. The project includes installing and testing water and sewer lines along the road, as well as creating curbs, gutters and sidewalks, Public Works Director Bill Earley said.

The total cost of the project: $691,678.

The sum took CNCC President John Boyd by surprise.

"This is more than I thought we would be paying for this," he said at the Craig campus's board meeting Monday night, adding that he initially questioned the figure "emphatically."

He attributed the unexpected costs to rising asphalt and construction prices.

"I don't know of many construction costs now that are reasonable," he said.

Twin Peaks will carry out the Ninth Street extension under its $2.7 million contract with The Memorial Hospital, which is slated to construct a new hospital building on the college's subdivision.

The company initially was contracted to build roads and other shared infrastructure between the college and the hospital. The two entities shared the cost of the project.

Staying with Twin Peaks will save the college the cost of finding another contractor, Boyd said.

The college will repay the hospital for the construction costs incurred with Twin Peaks for the Ninth Street extension.

The college stands to benefit from the road's extension, said John Sattler, Diversified Consulting Solutions president/buildings division manager. The company is contracted to help the college plan its future building projects.

Ninth Street will border two lots in the subdivision where the college plans to build future facilities.

Boyd agreed, saying the college would need Ninth Street to access parking lots and other facilities that have not yet been built.

The extension "is all right with me," he said.

Bridget Manley can be reached at 875-1795 or bmanley@craigdailypress.com

Comments

"The city will require the college to extend Ninth Street to the edge of the 100 acre parcel", and "The college board owns the subdivision and is considered the developer of the property". These two lines appeared in today's CDP article. The total cost to extend the street has been defined as $691,678. The sum took CNCC President John Boyd by surprise, and questioned the figure "emphatically".

But CNCC won't be acting as the owner. Instead TMH will apparently add on to an already fulfilled contract with Twin Peaks, thus circumventing the mandate that CNCC go through an organized bid process. TMH will pay Twin Peaks, and supposedly CNCC will reimburse TMH later.
While none of this sounds exactly kosher, the worst part is that there will be no competetive bid for this work. In this era of slowdowns in the construction industry, I can imagine many contractors that would invite an opportunity to bid on this project, perhaps several local contractors.
If John Boyd is emphatic enough he will demand that this project be put through the bid process, then we will all know what it truly should cost.
Where was our award winning newspaper on this matter?

I am sure they response by Native and others will be the same rhetoric "get over it" "blah blah blah" etc etc etc. We seem to have a lot of citizens who don't like to hear the emporer has no cloths on. The minute you ask a serious tough question that they don't have an answer for they Wag the Dog by going on the offensive or asking you to coffee. It is amazing how time and time again our trusted institutions violate sound business practices and a select few applaud them for being progressive and inovative. Break down a few of these contracts and I believe you will see a select few organizations getting rich at the expense of our tax payers. But that is just me. I am sure though that even though the hospital has provided us with only watered down information we aren't getting taken to the cleaners, cause that could never happen to us.

This isn't the first time I have heard of current and upcoming projects in town being underscored by the "good ol' boy network". Stan has it right, we do need to know what the cost is, especially since our monies from our tax bump will more than likely go to assist in funding this, at least initially (Hi Peter, I am taking your money and giving it to Paul). There are benefits to using a contractor that is already on site, especially if there equipment will already be there, you will save mobilization and administrative costs since crews and equipment are on site, whereas another contractor will have to include these costs. Bottom line, a contract of that magnitude and monetary cost should be competitively bid, even if the difference is only $50k, that is either an acceptable gut check to keep the costs honest or an opportunity for a saving. If our money is infact going to be used in this manner, than the invested people of this community deserve the right to look over the shoulder of those handing it out.

It would be so refreshing in Moffat/Craig that contracts being handled in a open and honest procedure (for a change). We need to have these contracts, bids, "slap you on the back deals", be transparent, and open for all the payers of these projects to review and make comments. However, I truly believe those who pay the bills are being keep in the dark like mushrooms. With the downturn in the economy, these types of deals must be open and honest. It is time for those who pays these bills to take to task those who think they can operate being "juice" rather than honesty and intregity. Thanks for the open discussions on these issues and make sure your neighbors start to be involved in these issues facing us.
Patt McCaffrey

I will say that the cost doesn't surprise me or offend me as much as the way it appears to have happened. For one, you have a project management team who is either overseeing the permitting and engineering or acting as liason for these items. When the initial bid package was put together, how was a requirement like this missed in the proposal and scope of work? Most proposals will state something like - adherance to Federal, State, County and Municipal Codes is mandatory... The engineering company would have to be aware of these things, when the design goes through permitting stages for approval it should get caught at that stage as it appears to have here, especially if they are submitting the packages in portional grids of the sub development. I would think that the project management would have been all over this requirement prior to setting up the infrastructure of the project. Construction costs have definately been a huge impact, while construction locally and in residential markets may be slimming, it is definately a contractor's market out there in commercial, heavy commercial and industrial markets both nation-wide and world-wide - the skilled labor force is dismal. The price of labor, steel, concrete and copper is outrageous - I guess escalation was not overlooked from the budget as well. That being said, I am done casting my glass stones at rock houses - I do hope the project is successful as we will all benefit from it's completion for many years to come.......sweeping up glass....muttering.....

This is just like the jail nonsense. Oh we need to add this and that, and we forgot this, and forgot that, and soon enough we had a 12 million dollar jail with a 10 million dollar bond that added what,..... ten more beds than we had before at the old jail. What does that add up to per bed? Riiight!

Oldsage,
Actually the PSC was solemnly promised for $8 million, it actually cost $14million. On another note, everyone has forgotten that when TMH was designated as a Critical Access Hospital, it came with a limitation of about 25 beds. All the growth everyone talks about will soon outstrip that limit. Then, TMH will have to compete with YVMC on equal footing, GOOD LUCK!!

Let's put this no-bid process in perspective. TMH paid at least $2.7million for last year's "infrastructure improvements". According to TMH , the college transferred, "$750k in CNCC contributions to the new hospital infrastructure project".
Understand that CNCC is largely state funded and must comply with state mandated bidding criteria. To that end CNCC started their process in the proper fashion. I saw solicitations for bids, walk throughs and scope of work presentations. I didn't see a bid solicitation for contributions.
Now we are at a point where CNCC was surprised by a City requirement to extend a street that was not apparently in the original scope of work of the $2.7 million project. Bear in mind that the owner of the original $2.7 million project is TMH, CNCC was merely a contributor!
Now, TMH will make a "change order" to the original scope of work, and will pay Twin Peaks for the extension
So, who owns what? CNCC is dodging the mandated bid process, and TMH is apparently complicit in that process. TMH is obligated by at least two statutes to bid out capital expenditures, but that has never been a deterrent in Moffat County. Twin Peaks will get the bid award without competition!!! Buy local??

So other than the contractor, who exactly will benefit from this process? I cannot see that by going out for competitive bids that it would be a schedule impact, if this scope of work was not included before is it going to be accounted for some sort of inclusion for liquidated damages, I am not even sure if there are any LD's associated with getting any of this project completed by a certain time - can anybody shed any light on that aspect of the project?

I can't imagine that time is of the essence on this project. But, it is obvious that TwinPeaks has left the site. If they mobilize from the east slope they are at an immediate disadvantage compared to local contractors who are only minutes away. I would estimate that disadvantage to be at least $100,0000. How could they be competetive? That's 15% . Strange that the people who make these decisions are again silent. Wrong questions I guess?

I would like to know how much money goes out of area from the hospital? I know the managers they have aren't local. Stan it sounds like you get the financial documents, how much does it cost us to pay someone from somewhere else to do a bad job managing our hospital? How much of current contractors, builders, architects, etc are part of the same group? Does anyone know the name of this organization and if so are they any way affiliated with TwinPeaks or others on the project? Seems like there is a lot of chronie-ism and the job hasn't even gotten off the ground.

I will say that in most cases concerning the overall project, many of the local contractors are either not experienced enough or certified/qualified to do some of the installations. That being said, it is a shame that they are not at least included in these bids. Specifically towards the road extension, it is not a difficult or very technical phase of the project, for this type of work we do have well qualified and very experienced contractors in the area that are familiar with the local soils and drainage issues. I think Stan is correct, the mobilization of Twin Peaks is I am sure every bit 15 - 20% - mobilization fees are always a good means to be cash positive for a contractor at the beginning of a project, especially if the billing for their work is on a net 30 or net 45 day pay cycle - I could easily see $75-100K being representative of this.

Thanks Stan, I knew it was over budget I just didn't know it was that bad only that the PSC was cited as a project to look at as how not to do it!

And Three US Banks are now no longer participating in the student loan programs. Maybe the tuition prices will fall. The national economy is biting the dust and the local economy is not far behind. I told you so last fall people, you'll be sorry for taxing yourselves and your neighbors out of their homes.

As for the hospital issue think Quorum and their affiliates. Quorum has managed TMH under contract for several years. Why? At one point they also took over the ER functions and billings. All major equipment purchases are through an affiliate as well. The design work that is apparently in process as well as the efforts to secure funding are all Quorum related. The prime contractor has also been identified, Quorum again!!
Ditto for the school, Neenan is the company that told the School District what they needed, will arrange financing and will be the contractor.
The one thing both entities had in common is they identified how much they would spend, and then will determine what the public will get!
No person in the private sector would make such a moronic arrangement. Not with their own money!!

I suggest everyone start showing up at City Council. A crowd in the room makes a difference.

I also believe that we shouldn't be accountable for the property taxes on the hospital just yet. I think they need to secure the bonds first, let us see what it's really going to cost us and whether we can afford it. We've been warned against building on sand. The economic future is grim at this point until the FEDS figure out how to put more money into the system.

We are Socializing our Federal Reserve right in front of our eyes and what they do in DC effects each and everyone of us.

Did you all notice the TMH meeting agenda? To "recommend a change order for ninth street". There you have it, TMH will pay the contractor their asking price, no bids. All for the benefit of CNCC. Different way of doing business isn't it. Citizens of Moffat county don't get the real news, because the pitiful CDP won't print it. There hasn't been a real investigative reporter since Paul Shockley and Josh Nichols, and I think I know why they left. This issue would raise questions anywhere, but not with the CDP. Fair and balanced reporting? Same old Moffat County crap!!

That's true, true, true. It's a fluff newspaper. Why work investigating a story when you can print fluff good news stories where you won't upset an advertiser who is related to some cousin or friend of the family.